Arcana Magi Memorial Vol.4 - c.3

      Madam Mayweather arrived into a large room where security and faculty are manning the phones and communication radios. On the phone the dean overheard teachers talking to parents assuring them that their children are secured in their rooms. Security kept touch with their locations keeping everyone up to date. Mr. Morden approached Madam Mayweather as a pair of red eyes opened within the shadows and overheard their conversation.
      “Karyn, the police said they dispatched the Magi Unit. They should be here shortly.”
      “Good.”
      “And Azure?”
      “She's in shock, but she will be alright. I've sent her to the infirmary, Room 3B, in this building to rest. She will be under guard until we catch this shadow girl.”
      As Mr. Morden rested his arm on the table to continue talking, the red eyes closed and moved along the shadow of the table. She paused for a moment looking at the lit gap between tables. She waited for a teacher to walk by then slid across. Her body took human shape while out in the light, but once she grabbed the shadow, she pulled herself in as though entering a rabbit hole. The shadow managed to make her way outside the room and used whatever shadow the hallway provided to move around silently. She found an open window at the end of the hall; the night sky was pleasing to the eyes, and relief that it can get out without being sighted.
      Once outside, the shadow girl slid out of the darkness and shifted along wall to the next window. It was an office. She worked her way down the building to the first floor, to the main lobby. Hidden behind the shadow of the plant, she saw the map directory. Once she spotted the location of the infirmary on the third floor, she heard the elevator open. As soon as two guards exited, she rushed right in and closed it right away.
      The shadow arrived on the third floor found a large number of security guards. She realized it was going to be difficult. Barely a shadow around, she was going to have to walk in human shape. She read a sign pointing to the infirmary, and she hurried along the wall, tiptoeing carefully without making a sound. The shadow entered a pair of hallway doors signed infirmary and it was like entering a hospital. Nurses, doctors, and security all walking around. Without hesitation, she slipped into a shadow under a gurney and spotted a sign point to 3B.
      She followed every shadow provided by wheelchairs, carts, and tables, until she reached the room. There was a pair of guards waiting outside and no shadow to slip through. She waited patiently for minutes that felt like hours, and finally a nurse approached guards with a clipboard. She saw the nurse made a shadow from the ceiling lights, and used it as a transport to get inside. The shadow slipped under a table watched the nurse go behind the curtain to look over a bed. It did not take long and the nurse left the room. The shadow crawled out of the darkness and slowly pulled back the curtain. There was no one there.
      “FLASH!” Daniel said and burst of light removed the shadowed skin of the girl.
      The girl stumbled over the curtain shielding her eyes, and the guards entered inside using it to bind her down.
      “NOW! Sedate her!”
      A doctor rushed in with a syringe, but she grabbed his wrist, twisting it around and jabbing him instead. She pushed everyone off with a burst of energy made from shadow. She jumped out the opened window, but her feet were caught by Daniel and another guard came to reach her. The girl charged another burst of energy and knocked them both back, and slipped into the darkness.
      “Damn.” Daniel pulled his radio from his pocket. “Madam Mayweather, she escaped. Sorry.”
      Azure was walking with two guards, Jane and Ken, on a sidewalk heading for the dormitory. She saw all the security guards running around casting various types of Flash spells, lighting up dark areas. Corner, bushes, and even open areas. It was like the old style pictures from the 1940s she saw on television. This was all being done for her. So strange since the last time someone with authority went this far for her, it was to arrest her. How frightening it was hiding from them, hearing their voices, the determination. Now, she is on the other side, looking for a creature that crashed through a window and growled at her.
      “Why me?” She thought. The only connection she could make was that both shadows may know each other. Azure looked up and saw a guard escorting Jean-Pierre. Another problem added to her list of life's problems. He was really someone she did not expect. She remembered the first time he was caught. The memory was fresh all these months. It was one week after the fight with him and his servant Hitomi. With the window left a cracked open in her dorm, she returned from her first shower in her chimera form to feel what it was like to bathe in such a body. Azure was examining herself in her towel when her cat ears twitched for the first time and she could hear through window, the sound of movement. She saw Jean-Pierre through the window, leaning on a think branch, her vision strength suddenly increased. Azure screamed ducking behind her bed, not because a boy was spying on her, but because her heightened senses frightened her. When Sora and Ciel arrived, they spotted Jean-Pierre outside jumping off the tree to escape.
      Now there he is, once again not getting the message. He noticed her but the guard pushed him to keep going. Azure felt tired of all her problems remain unresolved, and she felt this was a good opportunity to get one out of the way. She marched right toward them, forcing her escorts to keep up. Azure waved the guard to stop and she stopped before them.
      “I want to talk to him.”
      “Azure.” Jane said. “We have to get you back to the dorm immediately.”
      “No.” She said standing in front of Jean-Pierre. “I want to ask him questions. If I don't, he'll never stop.”
      “We don't have time for this.” The guard said pulling Jean-Pierre by the arm and dragged him forward.
      Azure stepped aside with her hands clasped over her chest. She took a deep breath and followed them. Her escorts tried to stop her, but she pulled her arm away from them and hurried alongside Jean-Pierre. “Why?”
      “Because I think you're pretty.”
      “Keep your mouth shut and move along.”
      “Please?” Azure said to Jean-Pierre's guard, unaware of a pair of red eyes emerging from a darkened area near the tree. “So why spy on me? Why all this?”
      “Because you're strong. I mean you beat me, and it was amazing.”
      “You're weird.” Azure said as the red eyes kept up with the group. “She was right.”
      “Who?”
      “Ciel.” Azure felt Jane clutch her shoulder to stop her from walking. “She said you had thing for strong girls.”
      “I see.” Jean-Pierre said looking back while walking forward. “Well she's an idiot.”
      Jean-Pierre pulled himself away from his escort and hurried back to Azure. The guards immediately got between them and held him back.
      “Azure!” He said struggling to stay on his feet. “I think you're smart, funny, nice—”
      “How do you know?!” Azure said. Her loud voice made everyone stop. Even the red eyes felt the emotion of that yell. Azure approached them with her glowing red eyes, and they returned to teal. She stood before Jean-Pierre making the guards stepped aside unsure what to do. “All you know is my body, that's it.”
      Jean-Pierre lowered his head and watched Azure feet turn around and walk away.
      “Why is it so hard… to just come up to me and say ‘Hi, how are you doing?' ” Jean-Pierre lifted his head up with no answer and Azure shook her head in disbelief. “I have no feelings for you, and if there was any, that window closed, because you are such a coward for not talking to me.”
      Jean-Pierre watched Azure walked away with her escorts not knowing what to say, because what she said was true. He watched her smile, he watched laugh and cry, but he never heard her conversation. He never made an effort to talk to her. He just obsessed over her looks. Jean-Pierre felt the guard tug him away when he noticed the red eyes nearby. They locked onto each other, eye to eye, for a second of hesitation. Jean-Pierre pulled himself away from the guard and raised his hand up.
      “Azure run!” He cast his spell at the darkness. “FLASHPOINT!”
      The burst of light exposed the shadow creature. Everyone saw a boy with pitch black hair and red eyes. Just like with the girl, his red eyes were as normal as a human, his pale skin was scaly, oily, and limbs stretched out with sharpened claws. His roar was deeper with the sound of a lion mixed with a human. He ran away with his eyes covered, and the male guards chased after him while the female guard reported to the command center.
      Azure felt Jean-Pierre grab her arm and she was led away from the commotion. She looked back at Jane screaming for them to come back.
      “Stop!” Azure said. “We should stay with Jane at least.”
      “Is she behind us?” Jean-Pierre and Azure looked back.
      “Yes.”
      “Then we'll go to your dorm.”
      “Are you crazy?”
      “The least I could do is get you to a safe area.”
      “Do you even know what is going on Jean-Pierre?”
      “Nope, but that's not important.”
      “You idiot!” Azure said pulling her arm away from Jean-Pierre stopping him. “Their after me!”
      “What?” Jean-Pierre said and Jane caught up with them. “Why?”
      “I don't know, but it has something to do with the attack here five months ago.”
      “What attack?”
      Azure got into Jean-Pierre's face and poked his chest with dragon claw.
      “If you would have spent the past fourth months talking to me instead of staring at this,” Azure lifted her skirt up exposing herself to the Jean-Pierre. “you would have known what you are up against tonight!”
      “Put your skirt down!” Jane said, but Azure inched closer.
      “No! This is what he wanted! He doesn't care about anything from me but this. Go ahead Jean-Pierre, look at it! Does it make you happy?! Are you satisfied?! You pervert!”
      Jean-Pierre covered his eyes and Azure growled, with beast sound, at him for that. She grabbed his hand, pulling them away from his eyes, but Jane stopped Azure and got her to release her skirt.
      “So now you want to act respectful?” Azure crossed her arms. “You jerk. I have enough problems as it is. I don't want you added to my problems. I'm already stressed out.”
      Azure's hands clutched her shoulders and Jane placed her hand on the shoulders ready to lead the girl away.
      “I'm sorry.” Jean-Pierre said, and Azure and the guard turned to him. He looked Azure in the eyes and repeated himself. “I'm sorry for hurting your feelings.”
      Azure watched him walk away quietly dragging his feet on the ground. There was no feeling of sympathy towards him, but hearing his apology, against her better judgment, she decided to take a chance that the apology was sincere.
      “Jane, it's not safe for him to be out here.” Azure looked up at the guard. “Could we at least let him walk with us, and once we get to my dorm, you could take him to where ever he was going.”
      “I really don't have a choice in this. I can't let him run around.” Jane grabbed her walkie talkie. “C.C. come in. We have a problem.”
      Azure took a few steps forward. “Jean-Pierre?”
      He turned around and saw her wave him back with a scowl on her face.
      “Come on. You need stay in a group while these things are out here.”
      Without saying a word, Jean-Pierre approached them and he walked alongside Azure with Jane following them.

TO BE CONTINUED...